Flike personal tricopter gets first manned flight test

A team of flight enthusiasts from Hungary have just had their first manned flight of the Flike. This is a personal tricopter concept and it has taken less than one year to get from the drawing board to an actual flight.

Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd are state owned in Hungary and they managed to get the first manned flight test off the ground in northeast Hungary at the Miskolc Airfield. The Flike is named after fly-bike and it took off the ground with a take-off weight of 210kg. The flight wasn’t a long one, but it did take off from the ground and landed safely. During the brief flight the pilot showed the hovering along with manoeuvring capabilities while at the same time being able to compensate for wind. The flight lasted for a total of one and a half minutes.

The Flike has six rotors that are paired in a coaxial arrangement and these are driven directly via individual electric disc motors. Lithium polymer batteries power the Flike and the designers say that they last for about 15 to 20 minutes hovering or 30 to 40 of cruise flying.

The Flike is controlled by changing the rotation speed of the crafts individual rotors and this allows the craft to fly in the air in much the same way as a conventional helicopter. It is capable of rolling, hovering, drift, yaw, turn, dive, bank and sidle. It does have other capabilities but the team haven’t made these known just yet.

It has a flight management computer and this can take care of the stability of the craft along with the altitude and the lateral position. The team behind the Flike claim that riding it will be just as easy as riding on a bike. It also comes with emergency lift to stop a crash happening should one of the electric motors fail.

Now that that Flike has completed its first flight the team behind it are planning on building another prototype with a design and features that are very similar to what they planned for the commercial version. The designers are also hoping to start a start-up company and get investors on-board.

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